


A Sea Change

by ElectraRhodes



Series: GHOSTS [3]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: After the Fall, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 20:52:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17669873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectraRhodes/pseuds/ElectraRhodes
Summary: My contribution to the RDC5 After the Fall Zine.Bring a hanky.





	A Sea Change

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EmilyElm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilyElm/gifts).



> For my dear friend EmilyElm. With so much love! <333

A crimson ribbon danced in the wind, scudding across the bleach-bone white of the sand just ahead of her. Always just ahead. He watched as she ran after it, clutching with grabby hands, still chubby with babyhood. Just beyond her grasp he saw it ripple and catch in the prickling thorns of a gorse bush at the edge of the beach. The colour standing out against the sharp green and yellow.

The small girl turned then and waved and he lifted his hand in return. He’d go and help in a minute, reach into the thicket and retrieve the strip of silk, tie it more tightly round her wrist. Her wind-whipped hair would have to be untangled before it could be secured again. He felt for the comb in his pocket. Still there.

From where he leaned against the rocks he could see everything. The endless sea, the colour reflected in his eyes, a grey-green and blue and spring of salt. The cliff face, higher than he’d hoped, or had believed possible. The washed-out dawn with just a few strands of pink and mauve to relieve the blankness of a day coming in wrong. And off to one side something he didn’t care to examine more closely.

There were seagulls wheeling above now, displaced by crying carrion. The sharp monochrome of the birds against the cliff face a shock and a small terror. And the noise. Wheedling. Discordant. Unhinged. A feast before them they couldn’t ignore. He didn’t want to watch. But he couldn’t unhear them.

The child ran back across the beach, the ribbon all but forgotten, intent on other things now. When she reached her brother he saw her throw her arms about his neck as he swung her round and round. He was probably bigger then she remembered. Taller. Older. But none of that mattered now. Not now they were together again.

He watched as the two of them spun in a widdershin circle before they dipped and slowed and then, hand in hand began to walk towards him. The short walk was interrupted by brief stops. A shell, containing mysteries. Some entangled seaweed and line. A fishing float. Not one of those green globes that witches use to see everything. Just a bit of crumbling foam, no romance to it. And then something she and her brother crouched over.

In her hand when she held it out to him were a few pieces of sea glass worn smooth by the passage of time and tide. Green. Brown. All sharp edges rubbed away. How long did it take he wondered to lose all your bite and sting? He accepted the glass, admired it, held it up to the light and then stowed it carefully in a pocket.

They swung the little girl between them as they walked back across the beach to the path at the bottom of the cliff. It was a scramble up, but a route they had taken before. In the distance there were lights. Red. Blue. Flashing. Soon, he knew, soon there would be crowds, all in dark blue wind-cheaters. Looking. Finding. 

He let out a long sigh and the small girl wrapped her arms round his legs and held on. Her brother slung an arm round his shoulders carefully. He let himself be held. Felt grateful for it. Finally. He leaned into them both. The moment passed. He nodded. They straightened as one and headed inland a little. Crossing the wayward grass and shattered paving.

Across from the spreading blood-rust wings and unseeing fierceness a girl waited by the broken door of the house. Brown hair as smooth as the sea glass. A twisted turquoise scarf. She smiled when she saw them. Smiled and opened her arms. 

There was laughter in the air. And the drowning taste of salt in his mouth.

**Author's Note:**

> On the 15th February the Kickstarter for ‘Ravage’ gets under way. I’ve a story in there. Which, modesty aside, is bloody great. I hope you’ll want to support and read that too.


End file.
